Fragmentation, Segmentation and Centre Formation Some Thoughts on the UK and European Integration from 1950 to Brexit Fragmentation, segmentation and centre formation Some thoughts on the UK and European integration from 1950 to Brexit

Christopher Lord, Christopher Lord
2017 unpublished
ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo promotes theoretically oriented, empirically informed studies analysing the dynamics of the evolving European political order. The research is multidisciplinary and organized along four key dimensions: A European democratic order; the EU's executive order; expertise and knowledge in the EU; and European foreign and security policy. twitter.com/arena_uio Abstract It might be thought that Brexit is just a case of the UK getting honest
more » ... h itself and its partners. The UK never really accepted European integration. Hence, it should never have joined a body committed to an 'ever closer Union between the peoples of Europe' (even allowing for the convenient plural of the word 'peoples'). Yet, the UK's attitude to integration has not solely been one of aversion to European centre formation. If centre formation, segmentation into a differentially integrated Union and fragmentation are three possible trajectories of European integration, the UK contributed to a major act of European centre formation: namely, the formation of the single market. Elsewhere, British Governments settled for largely constructive forms of segmentation. One thing the UK has not been is a source of fragmentation. Of course, Brexit may change that. Brexit may be both necessary and impossible: something the British Government must do and something it cannot do. Brexit could fragment both the UK and the EU. Yet, a continuation of 'constructive segmentation' by other means-or even renewed centre formation-cannot be fully ruled out as possible outcomes of the Brexit referendum.
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